Tools:

• Roll20: A virtual tabletop app, supporting maps, character tokens/digital miniatures, dice rolling, etc.

• One Dollar Dungeon: Warlord’s Watchtower: A cheap but impressively comprehensive backdrop for the adventure

• Greytale’s Dungeon Blanks 2, Hassle-Free Castled: Ruined Keep, Dungeon Items, Bump in the Night Set 1, Game Props Dungeon, Quick Encounters: Cursed Woods: Additional props to clutter the scene

• GIMP 2.10.8: Image editor for cropping, color changing, etc.

System: Legend of the Five Rings, 4th edition, by Alderac Entertainment Group

Hours Worked: Approximately 18 hours

Player Characters:

• Hiruma Karasuhime, a scout who knows her way around the Shadowlands and her axe, depressed and broken by the death of her husband and the horrors of the Shadowlands

• Shiba Issei, a blind shugenja who talks to spirits to create supernatural effects, with a family history of blood magic he combats through fire spells

• Sakura Betty, a former ronin and general outcast due to her viciously ugly appearance, skilled in stealth and deception

Context: There were several issues to keep in mind as I designed this level.

My L5R group includes people from Florida, California, Delaware, and France — online play is a necessity. This means that my adventure had to include plenty of imagery. Unlike a tabletop played in person, I couldn’t just turn a book around to show my players a picture or gesture to convey subtleties.

I also had only myself to rely on for this project. As I am much less skilled at creating art than cluttering a scene, I decided to use various VTT sets to gain access to props and to rely on Roll20’s free library of tokens (for example, to represent the Nezumi/Ratling character and other NPCs).

The One Dollar Dungeon: Warlord’s Watchtower was a vital investment for this project, as it gave me a background to work with. There were some hiccups — in Rokugan, the Ruined Keep is made entirely of obsidian, and it’s much more run down than an actively maintained watchtower would be — but these were solved through a combination of props and theater of the mind.

As a reminder, Japanese names are “backwards” compared to English names. Sakura Betty, for example, is of the Sakura family, with the personal name Betty.

The party had been sent into the Shadowlands with a companion, Matsu Sayuri. Sayuri was a hotheaded woman more than willing to break a door down to get things over with — and if that starts a fight, then all the better; after all, strong samurai such as she have no chance of being overwhelmed by mere goblins. Sayuri was also secretly looking for signs of her missing cousin, Kitsu Yasushi, a friend of the party.

On their way to the Ruined Keep, the party accepted the aid of a Nezumi named Tch’kir. (The apostrophe indicates a clicking sound that’s difficult for humans to reproduce.) As Nezumi are immune to the Taint that pervades the Shadowlands, they make excellent guides, but they’re smart enough to let the samurai fight while they run away.

Outside: My primary goal with the outside of the keep was creating strong first impressions and establishing the theme. Though the players couldn’t see the enemies waiting for them or my notes about items on the ground, I described the obsidian walls the keep was made of, the marshy ground they walked through, and the mists blocking their view. I also took advantage of the digital format to mix in-character and out-of-character knowledge. Karasuhime, Issei, and Betty could not see the bloodstained crates and rubble on top of the keep, but this knowledge would hang in their players’ minds.

The players would quickly find that the front entrances were locked or blocked off, and had to find the tunnel entrance on the northwest side. The party faced a roleplaying challenge by convincing Matsu Sayuri that breaking down the front door would attract too much attention. lorem ipsum

When they didn’t seem inspired to look for tunnels, I had Tch’kir bring them to the correct entrance. I chose to do this because I decided that maintaining the flow of the adventure was more important than this puzzle. While the Ruined Keep was fun, the plot did need to continue forward; I didn’t want to spend ten sessions here (across ten real-time weeks) by insisting the players figure out everything themselves.

The obsidian-armored samurai and zombies at the top of the tower acted as a boss fight for the area. Zombies have a lot of health, but poor stats in every other area; they were largely distractions while the main boss attacked the party. I made an error here calling the boss a knight instead of a samurai, but I corrected this during play.

The hanemuri outside the front door were hiding in trees and eaves when the players first arrived; they ambushed the players as they left the keep. This was originally supposed to be an easy encounter; hanemuri are not dangerous unless they swarm a single target, at which point they receive stacking offensive bonuses. However, some lucky rolls meant the obsidian-armored samurai was effectively neutralized in a single hit, so I had a second boss, a Western-style knight in full plate armor made of obsidian, join the ambush. Though the party had Betty drop rubble on the knight from above, the encounter still proved nearly lethal to Karasuhime and Sayuri, and was a satisfying conclusion to the dungeon.

Cluttering this floor with mists, rubble, and remains was fairly simple; much of the work was figuring out how this map connected to other doors and stairways (you may notice the lowered part of the roof, with the belt pouch of zeni, does not connect to anything). While I added coal braziers, I was not overly concerned about lighting; most of the inhabitants were believably nocturnal.

Ground floor: Lorem ipsum

Second floor: Lorem ipsum

Third Floor: Lorem ipsum

Fourth floor: As the smallest floor, this was the simplest to clutter. In the original map, this was the top floor of the watchtower.

This floor reminded me strongly of a specific area in Dark Souls: early in the game, when the player finds the Undead Parish, there is a small tower with a miniboss, a Black Knight, at the top. In Dark Souls, the tower has little purpose beyond traveling up to fight the Black Knight. In my adventure, I wanted to capture the feeling of a tower used by a mysterious enemy for destructive purposes. As such, I dedicated a part of this tower to Kitsu Yasushi’s imprisonment and corruption.

The room the players enter by is left sparse so that players will turn their interest to the rest of the floor. Naturally, the two doors are trapped; as they are opened, a rope trap attempts to catch players and hang them by their feet. Though the traps are moderately difficult to spot and very difficult to dodge, they deal only minor damage.

I chose the smaller southeastern room as Kitsu Yasushi’s temporary prison due to its closer confines. As such, it contains a few of his personal effects. In case the players could not immediately identify them, I made sure they had been stamped underneath with the symbol of his clan.

The larger northeastern room is yet another ruined storage room. I included more medicinal herbs, and in another bag, I added caltrops because one of my players had specifically asked if she could find some.

The spiral staircase from the third floor continues up to the roof, exiting by the obsidian-armored knight.

This floor, simple as it is, worked well. I only had to make one adjustment during play: as the rope traps are designed to deal damage when the victim falls, I had to explain that the ceiling of this floor was much higher than the others. In a video game, I think this could help convey a feeling of endless darkness due to the obsidian construction. However, if I had realized the implication before play, I think I would have iterated on the traps to keep them varied without having a sudden inconsistency in the building’s construction.